The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a fuel injector and, more particularly, to a fuel injector for a staged combustion process.
In gas turbine engines, combustible materials are combusted in a combustor and the high energy fluids produced by the combustion are directed to a turbine via a transition piece. In the turbine, the high energy fluids aerodynamically interact with and drive rotation of turbine blades in order to generate electricity. The high energy fluids are then transmitted to further power generation systems or exhausted as emissions along with certain pollutants, such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). These pollutants are produced due to non-ideal consumption of the combustible materials.
Recently, efforts have been undertaken to achieve more ideal consumption of the combustible materials to thereby reduce the amounts of pollutants in the emissions. These efforts include the development of fuel injection whereby combustible materials are injected into the transition piece to mix with the main flow of high energy fluid moving through the transition piece toward the turbine. This leads to increased temperature and energy of the high energy fluids and more ideal consumption of fuel, which correspondingly reduces the pollutant emissions.